Red Sox strong in starting rotation

Given that coaches are a rather pragmatic breed, it's difficult to picture them being excited about much of anything. That's not the case with Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell, though. Farrell is downright enthusiastic about his team's starting rotation for the upcoming season.

(This is the first of a series leading up to spring training. Today: The starting rotation.)

Given that coaches are a rather pragmatic breed, it's difficult to picture them being excited about much of anything.

That's not the case with Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell, though.

Farrell is downright enthusiastic about his team's starting rotation for the upcoming season.

"I think we're all excited," he said, specifically talking about the return of young Clay Buchholz for what's expected to be a full season after getting some playoff experience. "His postseason exposure might be the shortest of the group, (but) it's a group that's pitched to the highest level that the game has to offer, while winning in the World Series competition.

"Tempering that excitement, we still have to go out and execute to meet the expectations and the abilities that each have in the rotation."

Truth be told, the Red Sox could have the deepest starting bunch in Major League Baseball with Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, John Lackey, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Buchholz projected one through five and veteran Tim Wakefield trying to find his own spot after eventually recovering from back surgery.

"You know, in a number of ways this is comparable to the rotation we began the '07 season with," said Farrell, recalling Curt Schilling, Beckett, Wakefield, Matsuzaka and Julian Tavarez, who was eventually replaced by Lester in late July. "Schill was still a key member of our rotation, Daisuke was coming in in his first year with us and the excitement that surrounded that. You look at John Lackey's addition this year and the excitement that surrounds him and our team and our staff and the emergence of Jon Lester, what's taken place over the last couple of years, so, yeah, there's a lot to talk about, a lot of be excited about, not just as a group but every night we take the field and who we can send to the mound on any given night."

One of the few teams that might match up with the Red Sox is the Yankees, with a top four of CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte and Javier Vazquez - a group that has made 57 playoff starts with an overall 25-15 record (Pettitte is 18-9 with 40 starts). The Red Sox group, minus Wakefield, has gone 15-11 in 39 playoff starts.

The Red Sox rotation appears all the more strong with Matsuzaka seeming to overcome his early-season injury problems with a 3-1 finish in September and October, Buchholz finding himself after losing his way during his rookie season and Lester establishing himself as one of the top left-handers in the game.

The addition of the veteran Lackey could be the key move, a real coup for GM Theo Epstein and a pleasure for Farrell.

Page 2 of 3 - "Unfortunately, sometimes there is a disconnect between how things look on paper, and how they play out in reality," said Epstein, "so those grand pronouncements are only better made in hindsight. I think I will wait on that. I will say that it's good to be operating from a position of strength. We talked right after the season about how we needed to add some pitching depth. If you look what we got right out of the fifth starter spot last year, the fourth and fifth spot, it wasn't really an acceptable performance. It was disappointing."

"What really shines through is the competitive fire within (Lackey)," said Farrell. "He's going to be a great addition to our staff. His personality will fit in great with the people who are already here. Baseball is clearly a main priority for him. He is not distracted by other things. That's what makes it exciting to see Beckett, Lester, him, Wake, Buchholz, Daisuke . They're all motivated by the same thing, and that's to excel on the mound."

There's just as much excitement, though, over Buchholz and Matsuzaka, who are expected to have full, strong seasons.

Farrell said last week that Matsuzaka has been having terrific workouts at Athletes Performance Institute in Arizona and that he's been re-energized, working on a program established by the Red Sox' training staff.

"He's in a great frame of mind," said Farrell. "The workout program at API has gone very well. He is extremely motivated to have a year reminiscent of '07 and '08 here with us and I think the way he finished up the year and the starts he got at the end of the season allowed him to go into the offseason - allowed us to go into the offseason - knowing that he was healthy, that we could plan with him as a main part of all those plans from a health standpoint."

As for Buchholz, Farrell says that one postseason start, Game 3 when he left with a 5-1 lead after five innings, will serve him well.

"I think it helped immensely, and within that game was the challenge of that game getting away from him the first couple of innings," said Farrell. "He stemmed the tide, finishing out a solid outing and keeping the game in check and gave us a solid opportunity to win.

"I think it proved to himself that he could meet the hype and the buildup to a game and go out and execute as he had done for the two-and-a-half months prior to that."

Perhaps the biggest thing Farrell has to sort out is the order of his starters, as well as the inclusion of Wakefield.

"There's going to be a number of things that we will accomplish before we get to that point," he said. "I think before any decision is made on who those five starters will be, I think Wake probably is going to affect that as much as anyone, and when we get into camp ... his repetition on the mound and in games is going to give us the added information to make a decision at that time."